Regional Disparity in Agricultural Development in Satara District of Maharashtra: A Geographical Analysis

Abstract Regional disparity in context of geographical aspects is a common fact. The very fact has great impact on human activities. Agriculture being one of the basic activities of man is influenced by geographical, meteorological and social factors at some extent. In Indian economy agriculture plays a vital role. Satara is one of the agriculturally dominant districts of Maharashtra state. However, district experiences more regional disparities in the development of agriculture. In the present paper agricultural disparity has been analyzed at Tahsil level. Satara district situated in the western part of the state and geographically lies between 17° 05” to 18° 11’ North Latitudes and 73 ° 33’ to 74° 54’ South Longitude. Present research work is based on secondary data which is collected from socio-economic review, district statistical abstract, district census 2001 and annual report of irrigation department 2010. The geographical area of the district is 10, 48,000 hectares and population of district is 28,08,994 as per 2001census. Population density in developed area is more than 500/km2 and in underdeveloped tahsil it is less than 230/km2. From the total working population 67.02 per cent population directly engaged in agriculture sector. The total land is available for agricultural is 7, 30,200 hectares (69.67% of total). More than 85.83 per cent population lives in rural area depends on agriculture sector. It is found that due to physiographic, climatic, soil and ground water level are agriculture disparity induced factors. From the foregoing study it is inferred that tahsils Khandala, Javali, Mahableshwar, Patan, Khatav, Man are underdeveloped whereas Phaltan, Koregaon and Wai are partly developed or developing tahsils. Being urban centers Karad and Satara are agriculturally developed. It is suggested that improved irrigation facilities should be practiced for sustainable regional development of agriculture in the agriculturally underdeveloped region of the district.